A Space Opera in Five Acts

Maybe one day something as literal as the Space Opera will be a thing. Until then I guess I'll settle for the metaphor.
Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon, Captain Picard, and Luke Skywalker all have one thing in common. If you guessed handsome caucasians will I guess that'd be acceptable, but more importantly they are staples of THE SPACE OPERA. No they don't sing, but they do preform on stages set for spectacle and drama on a wide scale.
Let us begin not in space but on earth, when there was still wonder and adventure to be had in unknown territories. The Odyssey involves a king on a perilous journey to get home by traversing a Mediterranean sea made up of gods and monsters. Along the way, there are pitfalls and victory. A seemingly endless display of fantastical creatures and characters, each one even more compelling than the last. So what happens when we've finally chartered those waters and the rest of the world around us? Where do we go when we've realized the world isn't nearly as fantastical as those myths claimed? We once again point to the unknown. In this case we pointed up to the stars.
Jules Verne's A Trip to the Moon was just the stepping stone to the space opera. A simple rocket adventure around the moon with a good dose of victorian scientific principles may seem a bit boring to today's readers but back then it was a rush of adrenaline comparable to the small crew whose vessel was shot out of the cannon.
What followed was a boom of fiction in the 20th century. Film and Literature went hand in hand traversing the galaxies and exploring strange new worlds. It was in Television and Film that two modern mythologies were born and continue to influence the world today. Star Trek and Star Wars. Trek was exploration, adventure, uncertainty of where the journey would take us next. Surprises lurked around every corner of this vast frontier.
Star Wars was a different kind of beast, one that suggested there is a galaxy out there with human characters experiencing human problems but on a scale unimaginable on our pallid earth. The drama was with space vessels dodging lasers, and mystical knights dueling with swords of light. High fantasy amongst the stars that we have yet to visit.
But thats what makes Space Opera so compelling, it's the final frontier. An endless stream of galaxies and universes to be explored. If that doesn't spark the imagination then I don't know what will.